Railfanning the Appalachian Region, Part 2

The early 80’s were a time of change on the railroad scene. Due to declining traffic, to survive, railroads were being acquired and merged into larger roads.

The Seaboard Coast line and L&N, or family Lines became part of the CSX Corporation along with the Chessie System in 1980. The Southern would merge with the Norfolk & Western and become part of the Norfolk Southern Corporation within a year. Although much was changing, operations of these railroads remained mostly unchanged at this time.

In Volume 2, we’ll revisit the busy operations of the Southern, RF&P, SCL and other railroads in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina in June of 1981.

We’ll view the varied motive power and train consists as we revisit favorite locations and follow the trains as they travel through new locations like Hamlet Rocky Mount, Sanford, Kings Mountain, Old Fort and more. We close with a brief visit to the then recently closed Auto Train facility at Lorton, VA which would later reopen under Amtrak.